A still more valuable literary pioneer was DR. THOMAS BIRCH (1705-1766), one of the secretaries of the Royal Society, and a trustee of the British Museum. Birch wrote elaborate but dull Lives of Queen Elizabeth, Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I.; of Dr. Ward, Archbishop Tillotson, &c. He edited Thurlow's State Papers, Spenser's Faery Queen, and Milton's prose works. He collected a great amount of materials, literary and historical, and deserves honourable mention in any retrospect of British literature.